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What comes to mind when someone mentions a ‘viral’ video? Is it a musical marriage proposal? Twerking gone wrong? Or even a young child shouting “Charlie bit my finger”? If it any of the above do come to mind then I’m not surprised as that’s what I would think of too.

Just to clear it up for any not aware of the term viral video – it’s when a video becomes very popular by people sharing it to others usually via the internet. Usually we find viral videos to be funny, very sweet or unique. However this video I have shared below I am surprised became viral.

This video is very emotive, with a strong message. Without being an advert for “Don’t Drink and Drive” it acts as one. It comes from a campaign/group called Because I Said I Would. They have a YouTube page, a Facebook page and a Twitter feed. When trying to find out what this group is about I came across the following… Because I said I would is a social movement dedicated to bettering humanity through the power of a promise. To encourage positive change and acts of kindness, we send “promise cards” to anywhere in the world at no cost. Because I said I would executes charitable projects in support of other non-profit organizations and good they bring into the world. (http://www.youtube.com/user/becauseisaidiwould/about).

When we started University we were introduced to the “professional community” that is LinkedIn. We were told to sort ourselves an account on there and start using it as it would help us in the future. Anything to help me in the future I’ll accept!

So, LinkedIn is mainly focused on telling people your professional experience, and I can tell you all now my ‘experience’ is quite pathetic – it did not take me long to fill in! Job experience – Waitress. Skills acquired – working in a team, bar work, bla bla bla! And there’s my job experience…told you it didn’t take long!

Once I got through the task of filling everything in, i.e. qualifications, university, job experience, skills etc, the question is…now what?? I enjoyed creating my profile and adding people (not that I knew many people on there), but then it came to a standstill and I thought “well what am I actually supposed to do here?”. I’ve joined a few groups, thinking that’s what you’re supposed to do, but I don’t do anything with them! It’s clearly not like Facebook where you have conversations with people and it’s not like Twitter either, where you tweet about random and possibly uninteresting things.

I do still go on occasionally to check if I have any notifications or if anyone has viewed my profile, but I don’t do anything else. Have you got any tips of how to get the most out of LinkedIn? It’s got me questioning whether I’m too young with not enough experience for it yet…either way I will NOT be deleting my account, I’ll carry on being young with no experience until I’m older with plenty.

The adverts on Facebook usually have a link between previous websites you’ve been on and items you’ve looked at, they are then tailored to your home page to tempted you to go back and buy. Ok, I understand the concept BUT I can’t handle the temptation!

As a woman, I like online shopping, I do it quite a bit (probably too much). So when I’m looking at a new pair of shoes or a new dress then decide “No, Jo you don’t need them, save your money!”, I then go onto Facebook where the previous item is being pushed in my face. No wonder people are going into debt when you can’t even go o Facebook to talk to friends without being told to buy a handbag!

However, Facebook do completely get it wrong at times aswell. At this moment in time there’s an advert on my home page for powered wheelchairs…dunno where they have got that one from?!

I think the Facebook advert concept is great for fashion retailers, tempting an audience to go back and purchase. So well done Facebook in making me buy those shoes but you didn’t do so well in trying to get me to buy a wheelchair, sorry!

It’s true, you don’t! As most of us tweet, blog, and write stuff on Facebook without being aware of who is reading what we’re saying, we have to be careful because someone important may actually be watching you!

During the start of University I tweeted completely unaware people were even bothered about what I was saying, I just tweeted for me, forgetting that there was a whole world out there to read what I was writing – BAD MOVE! During a University project, where we used social media to make a video go viral (which we succeeded in doing), I had a direct message from a Lecturer at Uni telling to be careful what I was writing on Twitter as we ‘had a lot of eyes on us’. He was right! We ended up having 2 different interviews from that because they were following what we were doing and saying whilst we were all completely unaware of it!

Since then I have been careful about what I write on the internet – it’s a big thing you know and a lot of people can see you! I even had a e-mail yesterday from podium.me asking for an interview with me about my recent blog post about the “Rate My Shag” pages on Facebook. Just when I thought my blog wasn’t popular!

I, like many others, am the stereotypical young person who is always looking at some sort of screen. If it’s not my Blackberry, then its my Nook tablet or my Dad’s iPad, or my laptop or my TV. Sometimes I am even looking at 3 at once!

As most people, I can access Facebook and Twitter on my mobile so I can easily check what’s going on no matter where I am, and yes, I probably check them too much (every 2 minutes isn’t normal, right?). I use these as a newspaper when I am commuting, whether I’m on a bus, tram or train I will scroll through my news feed to see if anything new is going on. I use Twitter to tell me life events rather than watching the news, and I’ll have a group conversation via Facebook as opposed to meeting up in person. Surely everyone else does the same thing though? I think as a society we’ve got to a point where it’s normal but could it actually be classed as an addiction?

I’m sure plenty of people know what I’m talking about when you leave the house and leave your phone behind, you feel ‘lost’ without it. Many Blackberry users have been known to see the red light (the notification alert) even when there are no notifications, but they are adamant they have seen it. I will hold my hands up and say I have been sure in the past I’ve seen the red light when I in fact have not.

I have read an article from The Telegraph (I read it online, surprise surprise) explaining a study which was undertaken to see if people who claim to be addicted to social media have withdrawal symptoms when they go without Facebook and Twitter. Indeed they found out they did get withdrawal symptoms when they were forced to go cold turkey.

What would happen to people like me if Facebook, Twitter, or even mobiles were to disappear? Would we need to go to social media rehab?

Videos are being shared between friends now more than ever on Facebook and we can’t click play without having to brace ourselves for what we may or may not see!

Personally, I stay clear of most videos in my news feed, I will only watch ones sent directly to me. When videos are circulating from the torturing of animals to self-harm to porn how can we expect our news feed to be safe? The most horrific and vile videos can be seen on Facebook and yet there are millions of 11-16 year olds who could be at the receiving end of these (yes, I know the minimum age is 13 but we all know younger people are on it- they lie).

Would you want your children watching these videos?

I think Facebook needs to crack down on the videos that are shared and be able to stop explicit videos being shared altogether or block anything with over 18 content on YouTube. Or even for people like me who don’t want the opportunity to see things like that just block videos from the news feed altogether. Have you got any better ideas?

I know it hasn’t always been like this, so when did it all change? And why? Sort it Facebook!